China-Chinese Food

We went with a spicier broth for our second bowl of rice noodles. It came with bits of chicken, chives, bean sprouts and beancurd skin. While it looked unassuming, the broth carried a kick of spice, though it was less numbing than I was expecting for a rattan pepper base. Would have liked the flavour here punchier!

I’m a huge fan of wild mushroom soups and was excited to try this after passing by several times! There were three types of mushrooms used in the broth and you get to choose either steamed or fried pork for the pairing meat. Noodle options include the rice noodles, sweet potato noodles, and a couple more, but we went with their signature rice noodles.

Though the chicken chunks were a tad dry, the clear broth was super flavourful and comforting. Noodles were soft with an easy bite. Will definitely be back to try more!

There are quite a few mala tangs around that we can’t take as they use a beef bone broth as base. The one here at the new 汤火功夫 doesn’t, and there are 3 flavours to choose from - spicy mala tang, dry mala and tomato broth. The well-balanced mala broth was creamy but not too thick, and had a very nice nuttiness. Try adding the 麻椒油 (peppercorn oil) from the condiments table for an extraaaa shiok hit of numbness!

I must say that the price can add up quickly at $3.07/100g, but it’s the same price for all ingredients and there’s no gst & service charge (at least for now 😛). Planning to come back to try the dry mala!

📍汤火功夫 Tang Huo Kung Fu
SOTA #01-02
1 Zubir Said Drive
Singapore 227968

Haven’t had JUEWEI in a long time - I used to always get their Mala Lotus Root and Mala Kelp to snack on! They sell these in pre-packed boxes, but now have these Twin Delight sets that make it easier for you to try more at a go!

It’s 50% off from now till 24 Feb at all their outlets except City Gate and Jalan Besar for these:
- Mala Duck Wing & Mala Crayfish Tail ($9.90)
- Mala Crayfish Tail & Mala Cuttle Fish ($9.90)
- Mala Chicken Claw & Mala Duck Web ($7.90)
- Mala Lotus Root & Mala Beancurd Skin ($7.90)

My favorites were the Mala Crayfish Tail and Mala Cuttle Fish! Both had good heat and a lingering numbness.

I absolutely LOVE snail noodles (螺狮粉) and have always been stocking up on my favourite instant packets to enjoy at home whenever the craving hits!
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The soup base is made of river snails and fermented bamboo shoots which give it a distinct pungent smell, making it a you ‘love it’ or ‘hate it’ kind of dish heh. Was very excited to try this place out! I had the classic soup option, but they offer it dry too.

While the soup base definitely wasn’t as punchy and ‘smelly’ as what I was hoping for (the instant packets have spoiled me 😂), it was still an enjoyable one with extra spice. You also get to opt for free upsize on the noodles and top up for additional toppings like fried egg, meats, etc.

📍柳州女婿 螺狮粉
6 Mosque Street
Singapore 059486

If you’ve heard of the ‘NTU Mala Xiang Guo’ aka A Hot Hideout, they’ve just opened their 3rd and largest outlet at KINEX!
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It’s a decent hearty bowl (I won’t say it’s the best) with the biggest standout being their fry on a number of selected ingredients - the eggs are scrambled, while the luncheon meat, dory fish, lotus root and potato are all fried by default! If you have to pick, our favourites were the egg, lotus root and potato slices.

Appreciate the big selection of ingredients and their self-service checkout machines are cool with a number of customisable options. Recommend requesting for less salt and oil.

📍A Hot Hideout
KINEX Mall #01-45
11 Tanjong Katong Road
Singapore 437157

Haven’t had Gong Yuan’s Ma La Tang in a while. Saw that they now offer to fry items complimentary, limited to selected items like the wanton and beancurd roll - just let them know at the cashier! We appreciated this new gesture as it gives you something crunchy amidst all the soup 😂 On the other hand, was quite disappointed with the soup we were served with today though, it was super salty and thick, almost like a gravy ☹️

We preferred this bowl to the Sichuan Dan Dan Noodles ($9). The portion is similarly small and didn’t come with that many toppings for this price tag, though the noodles were chewy and the sauce had quite a nice tangy and spicy kick. We had this as extra carbs to fill us up, but it’s not something we would get again - would opt for extra white rice to go along with the Suan Cai & Fish instead!

Ordered the Dan Dan Noodles for more carbs to fill us up, but a pity the portion is pretty small and the texture of noodles were a tad too soft for us. The sauce used is prominently nutty.

Finally trying out 太二! Very lucky we got a table really quickly for lunch today, though we didn’t manage to make a prior reservation.

Loved the appetising sauerkraut soup base that was done well-balanced, unlike many overly sour / spicy renditions. We almost wiped it clean! It is definitely pretty pricey - we had the smallest portion to share at $49, but it did come with quite a lot of tender fish slices and generous suan cai. There’s not many ingredients you can opt to top up to add in (I wish there was more), but the crunchy bamboo shoots ($3) is something we’ll get again next time. Skip the vermicelli ($3), I think white rice is a better and more value for money pairing.

The bigger portions go for $69 for 3-4 pax and $89 for the largest. Plus points for the complimentary, free flow orange peel and roselle tea!

Scrambled eggs in your mala?! Found ourselves near NTU for our pottery class, so we popped by @ahothideout for the ma la xiang guo we kept seeing on Instagram 😂 The wait was really quite long though, so it’s probably not something you can get for a quick meal.
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What’s cool about their mlxg is the cook on the ingredients - eggs are scrambled, while the fish, luncheon meat, lotus and potato are fried. It is more pricey, but we enjoyed it quite a bit, apart from how salty it was. Spice and numbness was pretty balanced. Would recommend to request for much less oil and salt!

This has been my regular mlxg spot near work. Theirs is saucy and more heavily seasoned. Definitely make sure you opt for less oil and salt, because even though I usually do, it’s still more oily than the usuals 😂 I like that their ingredients are always fresh.

📍银湖麻辣香锅
GHK 407 Foodhouse
Blk 407 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10